White's Tree Frog constipated!

[Ganondorf]

I've called over 5 different vets that were 'exotic ', none that took frogs. As posted before, they all seemed to change their tone when I said I needed help with my WTF. Seems to still be out, but I'll try another soak. Just wish Deku wpuld stop straining to push it out.

Also, I have no way to test for parasites unless I can do it myself.

And yes, it's definitely impaction, not deficiency. He passed the stool which was ridiculously large which is my guess for the prolapse.

[elly]

Yeah, plus I'm not even going to school for this, so you know, not an expert!

[Lija]

Im no expert in frogs but im doing a BSC in natural sciences and done a HND in Zoology so have a basic understanding of Biology, Chemistry and animal psychology so my theory would be just going on pictures alone is...deficency of calcium, D3, UV etc leading to >> bones weaker >> thus the pelvis being weaker also >> causing the prolapse

no that is not correct. There is nothing in the pictures that would suggest MBD, although of course only X-ray diagnostics can confirm or not.
The leading cause of prolapse is impaction, that is almost always due to swallowing something they can't digest - pieces of decor, coconut husk, moss, lots of chitin containing food ( mealworms, superworms), etc. Very rarely parasites are the cause.

in that particular case I very strongly susspect a frog came impacted from petco.

To Ganondorf - can you please describe how are you soaking, in what and for how long? Please don't soak in anything for now and use only sugar or very sugary water directly on the prolapse.

It's been too long, it needs to be surgically fixed. You need vet!

Edit - just saw that vets in your area are not exactly seeing frogs and you live a bit too far to come to us Try to call somebody else.
you can pm me, I'll see it faster then here, I'll try to help you more.

.

[KMAC]

I have a book called current therapy in exotic pet practice and all that has been mentioned above by everyone including me is very possible the full list of usual causes of this are GI disease, nematodiasis, MBD, gastric overload, intoxication (have you and your frog being having vodkas? Only kidding), hypocalcemia, impaction or obstruction.

I would say more common is impaction, MBD, and protozoa parasite. If it was parasites it would be salt baths rather than sugar.

So as you can see given most of the possibilities its hard for anyone to give a true diagnosis of this when just using pictures. If you cant get a vet my suggestion is to contact your local university they may have the ability to do a quick ultrasound for you.

[KMAC]

I do think at this stage sugar is the best thing to get the prolapse to contract back, it should work eventually but surgically might be a lot quicker. I think I actually feel the same as the frog right now im on morphine due to a back injury from judo and my gut gets blocked and my treatment is lactulose (sugars) but it takes time for it to work but I get pain relief in couple of hours. So even though its not contracting straighr away I can only guess the sugar baths are providing some sort of relief?

[Lija]

You are mistaken and it's different for human and for frogs, it's different for other exotic species too. You shouldn't trust one book or a few that are geared to general public, most specific textbooks are outdated too, hopefully new Merck textbook will be issued soon. Amphibian and in general exotic animal medicine is evolving very fast, and information that is available to us is not quite the same as to general public.

I'll address Protozoa a little - most of them are commensal and treatment is not needed.
And I'll explain the sugar usage too.
Sugar is used to create hypertonic environment for water in the tissue migrate through the skin. It is what can be advised to safely do at home. We suggest sugary water as more diluted concentration for milder cases, full strength for situations like here. however if OP uses water or lower strength sugary water for soaks, the water goes back into the tissues. And the situation is not getting better.

Salt is different, it is by no means is safe or used to treat parasites.


Ganondorf, I'm sorry for off topic. Let's focus on helping you now

[KMAC]

Yeah sorry dood and thanks for the great info Lija and dont worry I know treatments for 1 animal is different to others and that all animal medicine is evolving, changing and better practices coming in. Im a big believer forums are where you see it first. But the book I also suggest is used by a lot of professionals but ill also keep an eye out on what you mentioned

[Ganondorf]

Sorry for the very late reply.
I don't know what to say.

All this time the prolapse has been out, but today she suddenly (or he, unsure) started becoming active. Climbing on the cage, and on my fiancé's hand. Just checked on her and it looks like it went in. Completely.

It's been almost a month and suddenly it goes back in. Is that possible? I mean, suddenly going in after a few weeks?
She's a little red now, and I'm hoping it's because she was staying in one spot for a little while and not red leg.

Going to buy crickets and hope she eats.

[KMAC]

Thats great news bud. Some times these things take time. Now its just a case of trying to identify possible causes such as impaction caused by substrate, foods etc and making the necessary changes. Prevention is always the best way forward so look for any other environment changes etc that can be improved and then just try your best to provide those needs.

Thanks for letting us all know thats great news.

[Ganondorf]

Will do!

Right now damp paper towel is substrate, because I'm almost certain the actual substrate caused it.

We found a very, very soft fake moss floor that we will use if it doesn't catch on the frog's feet.
In this time I'm going to call around again to see if there isn't a frog doctor around (even if it's an hour away I can drive it.)

[elly]

Glad the prolapse went back in! Hopefully it'll heal right up inside.

[Ganondorf]

Ah yes, I couldn't be happier!

Deku happily (and hungrily) ate two crickets yesterday with no problem. I'm just hoping there'll be no impaction (since we're using paper towels and she hasn't ingested it), and there won't be another prolapse.